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OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Arrows on the wind
A couple of enthusiastic reader requests have poured in for an installment of arrows. In the modern newspaper business, a "couple" and "enthusiasm" qualify as …
Stories by John Brummett
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Happy … for a little while
Happy days are here again for Democrats. Enthusiasm and energy amount to godsends after the burden of Joe Biden's feebleness, which pretty much guaranteed defe…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Still kinda like the guy’s book
An analysis of the imminent Democratic running-mate selection affords me an opportunity to deal with my once having been a fan of J.D. Vance.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Awaiting fair justice
Nothing is more important to order in America than a credible, respected, fair-seeming justice system.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Nuttiness all around
The Ridiculous American Political Parties, an irregular series, part umpteen:
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Driving cattle to convention
Our political parties are herds. Their campaigns are cattle drives.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Rhetoric shows Republicans rattled
One thing about Gov. Sarah Sanders is that she will reveal the latest Republican talking point with brutal directness.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Not without hope
Republicans are running as world wrestling entertainers--wildly contrived characters in wildly contrived feuds--and ultimate fighters, who kick opponents in th…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Bubba takes a seat
This time Bubba McCoy called me. It had happened once before, in the '80s. That was for him to ask if he could park his pickup at my house the coming Saturday …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Asa softens toward Trump
It appears that one of ABC's floor reporters at the Republican National Convention got orders from the control booth to find some of the more moderate Republic…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The winning streak continues
I said in a podcast over the weekend that a moratorium on assessing political fortunes was called for considering the assassination attempt, but that things wo…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Politics in 1990 Arkansas
Tommy Robinson's passing last week rekindled memories of Arkansas politics in 1990.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Sucker-punch at the Capitol
The glee was striking in the state's Republican rulers after they sucker-punched the state's pro-choice women on Wednesday to deny a vote to let a raped and im…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Zealotry? Of course not …
Some say Donald Trump only lies when he's talking. But it's more correct to say he's only obsessed with himself when he's breathing.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The real race to ponder
It's all about the matchup. Savvy competitors know that.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: It comes down to passion
It turns out people are motivated by passion for individual matters, not strategically in the broad interest of good government.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: On truth and politics
There aren't many of them left, and day-to-day normalcy is not very good for them politically.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Hold government to account
In a couple of days, the secretary of state's office will be awash in petitions with signatures that potentially offer Arkansas voters their only hope of a via…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Prepare for imperial presidency
Four days after the Democrats surrendered the presidency to Donald Trump, a U.S. Supreme Court that had been remade in recent years by three Trump nominees gav…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The follies of partisanship
We seem to be entering one of those perilous periods for a person who has never been able to grasp the essential blindness of political partisanship.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: A bad night for Joe
Early in the debate debacle, not a half-hour in, a hoarse, tired, pale, incoherent, way-too-old Joe Biden rambled to a fully lost train of thought. He looked a…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Lesson found in Oklahoma
The modern conservative movement has made ample progress, if you choose to call it that, on the notion that the U.S. Constitution's ban on government's establi…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Everything old is … still old
Here are the four things to look for in the uncommonly early, format-departing and potentially seismic presidential debate Thursday night on CNN and any other …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Sarah staying on message
Gov. Sarah Sanders sat last week for a rare half-hour interview with a representative of the Arkansas news media. By her performance, she essentially assured e…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The principle of the thing
"Sometimes you got to rise above principle."
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Treacherous and complex
The political middle is filled with treachery and complexity. You don't know who is going to endorse you next. You can get assailed by someone for agreeing wit…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Dear Justice Alito …
No matter how hard I try, I can't get Justice Samuel Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court off my mind. It is unpleasant to have him there--on my mind, not to mentio…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Bad optics in Hot Springs
I get that city leaders who use taxpayers' money to build public facilities don't want those public facilities to be truly public. The public can be bad for bu…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Spinning political gold
Let's talk about the two main spins you can put on an income-tax cut such as the one Gov. Sarah Sanders will power through the agreeable special legislative se…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: An uprising on the right
The first thing to tell you about this state Republican Party business over the weekend is that the Saline County Republican Committee thinks Tom Cotton is too…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Intimidation on abortion petition drive
Brave people venture into rural Arkansas counties to bandy petitions and seek signatures. They're trying to get on the ballot a constitutional amendment that w…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: No shortcut on this path
It was a comically overpriced speaker's stand. Gov. Sarah Sanders obtained it for herself through old White House chums who weren't in the speaker's stand busi…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: What we already knew
The Wall Street Journal, a great newspaper of Republican editorials but thorough and objective news reporting, published a lengthy article last week that faile…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Was it race … or pettiness?
First let's relate what happened to Black voters in southern Pulaski County in the congressional redistricting in 2021 based on the Census of 2020. Then we'll …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Partisanship run amok
All this partisanship in our "nonpartisan" judging is starting to wear me out. I've seen less partisanship in a Donald Trump bellow, a Tom Cotton snarl and a S…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Winning when it counts
I'm friendly with a fellow of a center-leaning, business-conservative political bent who has a beleaguered nature. He seems to have taken it on himself to carr…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Change has a-come
A generational change in Arkansas politics began to come clear in the summer of 2014. A young Republican running for the U.S. Senate, Tom Cotton, did not atten…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Need more than vulgarity
Today's column must contain a few asterisks in place of letters to veil profanity and vulgarity. That is because it will include quotations from James Carville…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Cotton too much his own man
Tom Cotton is at once the best and worst of the reported running-mate prospects for Donald Trump.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Not an endorsement (wink)
Associate Justice Rhonda Wood of the state Supreme Court took her "nonpartisan" campaign for chief justice to the state Republican Party committee meeting on t…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Bubba breaks it down
The last time I talked with Bubba McCoy, he'd been hauled to the doctor by his loving wife and granddaughter on their concern that his mind was slipping.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Respect for the court, and us
The issue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's home having displayed an upside-down American flag during the great threat to the country of January 202…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: We need to calm down
I oppose firing people because you disagree with them. I'd get fired four days a week for what I type for this space. Well, five, counting what I say in a week…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Why worry about Arkansas?
Politico, a highly read national website, ran a takeout last week on Sarah Sanders as a new kind of Arkansas governor. It described her as turning the state in…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Arrows aloft again
Political developments have occurred lately in sufficient quantity and quality to support a firing of conventional wisdom's arrows.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Biden’s row to hoe
It is not quite right to say in the context of the presidential race that the country will go as Michigan goes. Joe Biden could carry that state and still lose…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: In the eye of the beholder
This will be a treatise on the inconsistency of what we find offensive, both within ourselves and as a culture. And that ought to be helpful to people like Jas…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: What’s a little libel?
State Sen. Bart Hester stands sued for libel, which requires proof of malicious intent to harm, which requires thought by the accused, which is to Hester's adv…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Stormy weather in court
It happened again. The discussion at the weekly class on political news in the lifelong learning program called LifeQuest became richly topical and instructive.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Seeing both sides not weak
Issues seem so simple and absolute for Tom Cotton. I don't envy him.